Anonymous Buffett-like bet on S&P 500 causes a stir on options market

An nameless dealer prompted a stir within the U.S. fairness options market on Monday with a huge bet that recalled Warren Buffett’s well-known wager on international shares greater than a decade in the past.

The dealer offered 19,000 put options on the S&P 500 Index obligating her or him to purchase the market benchmark at 2,100 on Dec. 18, 2020, knowledge from New York-based options analytics agency Trade Alert confirmed.

As lengthy because the index would not drop greater than 22 % from its present stage of 2,582 by that date, the bet will earn the dealer roughly $175 million in premiums.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway offered billions of in inventory index options between 2004 and 2008, betting that markets would rise over the following 15 to 20 years. Although the trades have been made anonymously, they have been finally disclosed in regulatory filings.

Berkshire has taken in additional than $4 billion in premiums on the options. The holding firm has different contracts that haven’t expired, together with a ultimate tranche that can settle in 2026.

While Monday’s sale was nowhere close to as giant as Buffett’s, the dealer may nonetheless lose greater than half a billion if shares flip bitter over the following couple of years.

For instance, if the S&P 500 loses 34 % of its worth by Dec. 18, 2020, the dealer will rack up a lack of about $558 million, in keeping with a Refinitiv evaluation.

The market has been risky in current months, with the S&P ending 2018 almost 20 % decrease than its file excessive in September, though it has recovered half that floor since.

Another lot of about 3,600 of the identical places traded on Monday, serving to increase the overall variety of the contracts to about 24,000 on the day. Some 5,500 of the contracts additionally modified palms on Friday, in keeping with Trade Alert knowledge.

Some market members guessed the dealer was probably hedging towards one other place reasonably than betting outright that shares will rise.

“The natural sellers of long-term downside puts are structured products desks at banks, who are hedging exposure they get from retail clients who buy structured notes that have embedded short put options,” Benn Eifert, chief funding officer at QVR Advisors in San Francisco, stated on Twitter.